FILE PHOTO: People arrive for testing during the outbreak of coronavirus disease at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, U.S. April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Top experts on the White House coronavirus task force have made it clear testing is important, however, particularly as the country takes its first steps toward reopening, a move the Republican president has said he wants to make as soon as possible. Diagnostic testing determines if somebody is infected with the virus and antibody testing shows who has been infected and is therefore immune. Both will be important in getting people back into the workplace and containing the virus as that happens, the experts said.
The FDA is working with developers around the country to try to ramp up diagnostic testing, Hahn said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “So all hands on deck to try to get more diagnostic tests in.” He told CBS “Face the Nation” he had been in intense discussions over the weekend with leaders in neighboring states “on the whole question of testing, contact tracing, what are the rules of the road going to be for things like bars and restaurants to make sure we don’t have unintended consequences on one side of the river versus the other.”